I am currently a Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine in the UK, having written for Wired UK since its launch in 2009, and speak regularly on the impact of developing technologies on consumer behaviors at Wired Consulting events and elsewhere.
In my copious free time, I write for Wired, GQ and elsewhere on the emerging digital culture, from gaming giants to adventurous startups, and provide creative insight for technology companies. In previous lives, I managed corporate communications for a large software company, and was a senior creative at a Hoxton agency. But then again, who wasn't?
I'm also on Twitter and Google Plus. Send tips and/or contacts to danielATdanielnyegriffiths.org

They, and Robert Frost, are all wrong. The world will end in MOBAs. Endless MOBAs. Lord of the Rings? MOBA. Catcher in the Rye? MOBA. The night you proposed to your significant other? MOBA. Your high school prom? MOBA. The experience of playing a MOBA? There’s going to be a MOBA based on that feeling, scheduled for release in 2014. Micropayment-based model.

(If you are familiar with the background and just want a key, feel free to jump to the end of the article, by the way.)

Warner Brothers is by no means the first to join this train, but are now spinning up their own free-to-play MOBA, Infinite Crisis - and are recruiting for both free and paid-for applicants to experience its beta.

MOBing, MOBing, MOBing

MOBAs – Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas – are making a push both to become a viable eSport – with Valve’s DOTA 2 offering a grand prize a hair under $1.5 million at its annual The International tournament. At the same time it is making a play for mass popularity, assisted by a model stabilising at the much-feared freemium. On an average day, 12 million players log into Riot Games‘ League of Legends servers, and a milestone was passed in March of this year when 5 million users were logged in simultaneously.

The basic mechanic is the same in almost all of these games – each player controls a hero, and teams of players attempt to coordinate their attacks in order to buff up their own team and kill their opponents. Death causes a time-out, and thus a gap through which the enemy team can exploit superior numbers, usually to push towards a base. The first team to destroy the other’s base wins. The combination of teamwork, constant micromanagement and intensely bad feeling has turned out to be a powerful brew.

Turbine Inc, formerly best known as the creators of MMOs such as Lord of the Rings Online were purchased in 2010 by Warner Bros, and have been put to work creating a MOBA using the intellectual property of Warners’ DC Comics imprint. The result,Infinite Crisis, is now in closed beta, testing on the Gotham Heights and Coast City maps.

Crisis on Finite Servers

Infinite Crisis features that favorite of comic book writers and game designers – the parallel universe. In this case, six different versions of the DC Universe – and thus six different versions of their banner heroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – are coming into conflict. Broadly, these are regular, magical, post-apocalyptic, steampunk, horror and robot – all the major food groups.

In practice, this means you can have a Wonder Woman with a chainsaw:

Note the commentary, which as well as repeating the word “rev” until it loses all meaning, also highlights the specialized language around the genre. MOBAs are easy to pick up but tend to require a solid commitment and a committed group to master.

Turbine has announced a “Founders Fee” structure for those desperate to experience the beta: for a minimum payment of $19.99, players can get immediate access. This feels like a considerable ask, given that the game itself will be free-to-play, although the Founders will also be rewarded with champions, exclusive content and “crisis coins”, the in-game currency.

For those interested in the game, but less interested in shelling out cash money for it, a beta entry application program has been set up. Applicants can click here, and fill out a form. Although the process of selection is opaque (Turbine will be looking for a range of locations, to test the servers, and levels of experience), provision of a “preferred access code” is intended to prioritise your application over others with the same qualities but no code.

(How this actually _works_ has yet to be determined – but the logic is presumably that someone who has obtained a code is more likely to use early access, and therefore a better bet for meaningful testing feedback.)

I have 500 codes, provided by Warner Bros. These keys have no monetary value, and no function except to be entered into the application process for access to the Infinite Crisis beta. Warner Brothers will require other information in order to process applications – the choice of how much data you wish to provide to them is entirely yours, of course. If you would like a code, feel free to email me (dnyeeverything@fastmail.fm) or tweet me (@D_Nye_Griffiths) – or leave a comment here.

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Hi Thomas – I sent yours by Direct Message. People are asking by Twitter and email, very sensibly, because a code shared publicly here could be snaffled immediately by someone else – to be honest, if I’d had time I would have set up an automated dispenser, but I was in a hurry to get to a bar (games journalism!).